Valentine Projects & Giveaway!

 

Over the years I've written a few posts on Valentine's Day & we've made lots of Valentine inspired projects too. Here are a few of my favorites. The above post entitled, "Mama Guilt & the Waldorf Police", wasn't exactly about Valentine's Day but a few of our projects were talked about, including these toilet paper roll heart shaped candles. 

 I also wrote a tutorial to make this heart ornament. 

 

Last year I made these fun Valentine Spool Dolls.  

This year I've been busy making these sweet, Valentine gnomes, bears and mice and we haven't yet done any projects for our home yet.  I think we need some more heart shaped candles & maybe some Valentine sugar cookies!

Comments are closed, winner is posted!  Michelle Emery, who said,

Your creations are so sweet. I already made a needle felted heart bunting for the nature table. The kids and I plan to make beeswax and EO salve for daddy.

So in celebration of one of my favorite holidays, I would love to giveaway this little bear.  I will close comments on Sunday evening, 7 pm mountain time (9 pm est), that is February 9th, 2014, to get her in the mail for you to receive by Valentine's Day (for the US).  I will ship Internationally as well (even though you won't receive her in time). So please enter wherever you may be.  I will post the winner here so please check back with me on Sunday night. 

To enter this giveaway you must be a follower of this blog and please tell me what you plan to do or make with (or for) your littles this year to celebrate Valentine's Day.  For a second chance to win please share this giveaway and come back and tell me how you shared, via facebook, twitter, pinterest, blog, tell a friend, etc.  & that's it!

If you so desire please visit my shop, MamaWestWind on etsy.  I still have a few more of the above Valentine items to sell.  Also "like" my MamaWestWind page on facebook. 

Thank you friends!  Until next time...

Baby Jesus, Tutorial...

Gosh it's been so long since I've done any crafting for myself!  Now that my shop is slowing down I
can focus on crafting for my family and all the important things like making Christmas cookies!

I've been wanting a special baby Jesus for years. One that fits our nativity stable. Here's a simple baby I came up with.

I began by needle felting the bedding.  I used a rough wool in neutral with speckled blue & orange in it.  Then needle felted white on top of that.  They look like little oval nests.  You can use whatever colors you like of course.  I wanted neutrals and light blue. 

I used the baby pegs I often use for my shop. If you don't have these on hand you could easily use a wooden bead and a bit of stuffing for his body.  Or even needle felt his body. 

I drew eyes on him in pencil.  The blue is a square of cashmere from a re-purposed sweater.  You can use wool felt or whatever you have on hand.  I cut it with pinking shears and then folded it in half to make a triangle. I glued the baby peg in, then glued the first folded layer of cashmere down around baby.  I did this because I wanted as little glue as possible on the top layer of cashmere, so no glue can be seen.  Next I glued the corners of the blanket down.

Here he is all finished. I love the varied textures, he's so soft and snuggled looking.  I will keep him at the center of our table and on Christmas eve we'll add him to our nativity. 

If you use this tutorial please link back here,  I would love to see them. 

Until next time...

DIY, Felt Birthday Ring Decorations

I've been wanting a Birthday Ring for a long time now, I finally splurged and bought one! I found my ring at Joshua, on etsy. I love the Grimm's wooden decorations and I plan to buy a couple of them but mostly I think I will make our decorations. 

Owen's fourth Birthday is coming up, so I've started to think about what decorations would be meaningful for us.  I immediately thought of strawberries oddly enough.  Last year around this time, he had a dream and in his sleep he was saying, "sawberries, sawberries", over and over. When he woke up he asked for them with such urgency!  He gets so excited at the mere thought of strawberries & he often asks me to make a strawberry cake (something I've never made).  The other day I asked him if he wants to have a strawberry party with a strawberry cake.  He was thrilled at the idea & I'm thrilled too, I think I like strawberries just as much as he does.  Though the strawberries of my youth are the tiny sweet ones we used to pick ourselves!  Eeeek, love them!

So my first handmade birthday ring decoration, for Owen, is a strawberry.  I think that is the best thing about making your own decorations, you can make things you may not be able to find anywhere else. 

I've seen a couple of great posts on how to make your own decorations, this one at Rhythm of the Home, and this at Old Recipe for a New World.  Mine is a little different.  For the support I used wooden parts I can find at a Hobby store.  I use 3/4" x 5/8" Spools & 3/8" x 2 3/8" Tie Rack Pegs.  I glued the wooden parts together, using wood glue. Then I cut out the strawberry & leaves out of wool felt. I embroidered little strawberry seeds and then blanket stitched the two sides together over the wooden support. 

Lastly, I sewed the green leaves to the top, sewing the top closed as I went. Easy, peasy! It fits a little loosely, that doesn't bother me.  I think I may try a couple of wire support ones as well though.  More Birthday Ring decorations to come!

If you use this little tutorial to make your own Birthday Ring decorations please link back, I would love to see!

Until next time...

Make a Valentine Spool Doll...

I've said it before, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays!  I don't think Valentine's Day should be a holiday only for couples as it is so often represented.  No, it's a celebration of LOVE!  So it should be a day to celebrate all those we love.

This little spool doll would be such a lovely Valentine gift to make for your Mom, Grandmother, friends, teacher, anyone you'd like to show your love and appreciation.  Also, this could be a fun project for kids to make (especially if you leave out the wood burner).  It's an easy project.  Sorry this has to be said, but, this tutorial is provided for personal use only please. 

First, buy some wooden beads (approximately an inch wide) and spools.  Lightly sand them, then wood burn the spool & paint it with watercolor paint. You can wood burn your spool, paint it, write messages on it, whatever you feel inspired to do.  I added a little, "you are loved" message to one of mine.  I used Stockmar watercolor, but you can use any watercolor paint.  Make sure it's AP certified non-toxic if it's for kids or kids are making them. After it's completely dry add a layer of beeswax sealer to the painted spool. Wait 20 minutes or so and then wipe the beeswax sealer off & buff it with a clean cloth. Draw your face with a pencil or colored pencil or leave it Waldorf simple.  Add a layer of non-toxic varnish to seal the face completely. 

I tried a couple different ways of joining the bead to the spool.  I wanted it to be glued securely. On one I used a wooden peg wrapped with a pipe cleaner & then glued. The other I just used a pipe cleaner and glued that in.  Either way works.  Children may wish to not glue the head in and have a funny little revolving head.  After gluing I made my little gnome caps and sewed them up using a blanket stitch. Wee Folk Art has a gnome cap tutorial here.  Just make sure you make it slightly larger to fit your wooden bead head.

Both of these spool dolls are at my MamaWestWind etsy shop for sale.  Until next time, sending love to you and yours!

***

PS: Don't forget to enter my Valentine's Day giveaway at Little Woodlanders Facebook page.  Also please "like" my MamaWestWind Facebook page to stay up to date on all my etsy shop happenings.  

Thrifty Autumn Wreath

It's been so unusually cool here, it has thrown me into a little Autumn crafting. I've been wanting to make a large Autumn wreath for our door ( and pinning lots of ideas on Pinterest) but wreath making supplies at our Hobby shop are a little too expensive for me at the moment.

At a thrift store this weekend while looking for wool sweaters to felt, I spotted these!  A couple of small wreaths and some "woolesque" yarn in Fall colors.

With some of the lovely wreaths in mind from Pinterest, an image began to form.

I began by wrapping my wreath in this warm, soft, orange.  Next I invaded my stash of felted sweaters and cut out a red maple leaf and two other leaves in dark purple felt.

Then I made some warm yellow flowers from another thrifted sweater. For these I cut a long strip from the sleeve.  This piece is about an inch wide.  It can be as long as you want. The longer  it is the bigger your flower will be.  I glued it in half and then before it dried I began rolling the flower.

After it was rolled, I stitched it together, adding a little glue at the end to keep it wrapped firm.   

To hang it, I finger knit a cord in the thrifted red yarn.  All of the flowers, leaves and cord are stitched and glued on to make sure it stays together through the years.

I love the crafts that come together with things you already have on hand or that you can find inexpensively. 

Are you getting into the Autumn, crafty spirit?  What are you making?

Until next time...

Cell Phone Case Tutorial

You may have seen my posts about working on this cell phone case and being carried away by Laura Ingall's and her stories.  Well, I posted a tutorial over at Natural Kids blog recently. Come and visit me there and learn how to make your own knit & needle felted wool case. 

Until next time...

Tutorial: Valentine Peekaboo Ornament!

I love Valentine's Day!  I love the colors and the sentiment.  I remember my Mom always placing some  special Valentine treat or toy at our place settings at the breakfast table.  A tradition that I now do with my littles.  I've been excitedly creating some Valentine's dolls & ornaments for my shop. In my creating I came up with this little peekaboo Valentine Ornament. Today I thought I'd share how I make it. This tutorial is provided for your personal use only please.  

For this project you will need some felt, a wooden bead about one inch across, a pipe cleaner, craft glue & embroidery thread.  Also you will need some small, sharp scissors.

First cut two heart shapes.  Mine are about 3 1/4 inches across at the widest part. The felt I'm using is very thick upcycled felt made from a wool sweater.  You can use whatever red felt you have on hand.

I added some little pink cheeks to my bead- which is about an inch wide and has a hole on just one end. I buy the beads in the wood craft section at Hobby Lobby, they come in a bag.  I use Stockmar watercolor to paint the cheeks. Next draw in the eyes, use a pencil or colored pencil and make two little ovals above the cheeks. (you may want to finish that with a layer of non-toxic sealer.)

Now, take a pipe cleaner (any color as it will not show) fold it and cut it in half. You will only be using half of the pipe cleaner. Then fold this in half again.

 Fill the hole inside the bead with craft glue.

Then put the pipe cleaner inside as far as it will go. 

Cut a hole inside the middle of one of the hearts. 

Slowly cut out the circle starting small and making it bigger and bigger until when you fit the bead head  inside it fits without the bead falling through the hole. 

Blanket stitch around the hole inside the heart. Here's a great tutorial on futuregirl craft blog on the blanket stitch if you need a refresher. I begin at the top and stitch clockwise. I use 2 strands of variegated pink embroidery floss.

When the glue is dry on the beaded head twist the "arms" around the head. I do this because it provides a structure so the bead stays put inside the heart ornament.

Now, glue the bead on the back heart and add glue around the edge of the hole to really keep it solidly in place once sewn in. Use a light touch on the glue so it doesn't soak through and show on the outside.

 Blanket stitch the outside of the heart starting at the top of the heart. You may want to fill it with some wool stuffing.  My felt is so thick it didn't require stuffing. 

Once that's finished. take a needle and embroidery thread.  Knot one end and slide the needle in through the bottom point of the blanket stitched heart so that the knot is hidden inside.  Then cut two smaller hearts.  Since my felt is very thick I was able to push the needle straight through the center of the hearts. If your felt is thinner you can straight stitch it all the way down through both hearts.  Then knot the end at the base of the bottom heart.

Now thread a piece of embroidery floss through the top of the heart and knot a loop to hang your ornament.  And your Valentine doll is finished!!!

I have a couple of these to sell at my shop!  One is listed now at MamaWestWind.

Happy crafting!  Until next time...

Shop Update: Gnome Clothespins & Tutorial too!

I've been having fun painting clothes pins lately!  I've just added these to my etsy shop, MamaWestWind.  They are awesome little clothespins to hold your play silk collection.  They're easy for children to pin and un-pin for themselves at clean-up time and displaying the silks on a line at their eye level means the silks are always accessible to the children. I've found that friends coming over are always attracted to the bright colored rainbow on the wall! So needless to say they get played with often. These little gnome pins are also just fun for play & imagining with as well.  For those who would like to make them yourself I'm offering this tutorial for your own personal use. 

If you'd like to buy them check my shop. If when you read this you don't see them at my shop, convo or email me and ask and I will make you some. 

 

You can find packages of clothes pins at your local craft supply store.

First, lightly sand the clothespins.  Sometimes they are a bit rough. Sanding keeps them safe for little hands and if you sand the inside, the wood won't snag your play silks. I take sandpaper and fold it in half and then putting it inside the pin slot, lightly sand both sides at once. After sanding, paint them.  I like watercolors because I love the translucency of them. I use Stockmar watercolors and mix them with a little vinegar instead of water to help the color stain the wood. (Warning, if a child puts them in their mouth, the color will start to come off).  Make sure you use a non-toxic, AP certified watercolor or other paint of your choice. Stockmar is non-toxic of course. I've also had fine results with Reeves watercolor, also AP certified.  And Reeves you can find at your local art supply store.

After painting, lightly sand with a buffing paper to make them smooth.  Watercolor gets into the wood fiber and raises the wood fiber a bit making it slightly rough.  Buffing will make them smooth again.  Beeswax the pins. Here's a recipe for the beeswax finish.  This will hold the color in better and maintain the moisture in the wood. 

Add a layer of beeswax  and let it sit for a half hour or so and then clean it off and buff them with a dry cloth. 

Now, time for the hat!  I use 100% wool felt.  

 

Here is the shape of the hat laying flat. (sorry, no pattern, I don't know how to do that on the computer 

quite yet.) Start sewing with the knot inside the top of the hat. Of course you could simply glue the hats but I'm always afraid it will look messy or that it could be easily pried apart my wee fingers.

Fold the hat to make the gnome hat shape.

 

I'll let the pictures do the talking now. 

 

 

Knot the end on the inside of the hat. 

 

Then glue the hat on using craft glue.

 

This is the way it looks from the back. 

 

And from the front. 

 

And with some friends!  

Don't forget to add the eyes.  I use a sharpie marker in blue or brown and add them after the beeswax layer so the color doesn't run. You may want to wait to do the eyes until after the hat is on to see where you want them. 

And now you have a lovely set of gnome clothespins for your little ones!

Until next time...